Senior Embedded/Firmware Engineer (freelance)

intent; Polska; Remote; PLN 186,000 - 248,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully remote

Pet-friendly Warsaw office

Gdansk coworking space

Training budget

Job summary

intent is seeking a firmware engineer with 4+ years of experience, skilled in C/C++ for embedded systems, and hands-on ESP32/STM32 work. This freelance, time & material role starts with a three-month assessment period and leads to a permanent contract with full benefits for the right fit.

Fully remote, with a pet-friendly Warsaw office and a Gdansk coworking option. Flexible hours and collaboration with US-based clients are part of the rhythm.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of professional firmware development.
• Strong C/C++ for embedded systems experience.
• Hands-on ESP32 with ESP-IDF and ESP-ADF.
• STM32 experience in production projects.
• Solid Bluetooth knowledge across BLE stacks.
• Familiarity with IoT protocols like MQTT and WebSockets.
• English at B2+ written and spoken.
• Self-reliance, ownership, and clear communication.

Responsibilities

• Plan, develop, and ship firmware for connected devices.
• Gather and analyze client requirements and implement on silicon.
• Consult clients and internal teams on stacks and trade-offs.
• Work with mobile, backend, and QA to ensure BLE interoperability.
• Test firmware releases and write documentation.
• Estimate work and flag risks early.
• Promote better practices: code reviews and knowledge sharing.
• Use AI tools as part of daily workflow.

Skills

C/C++

Embedded systems

ESP32

STM32

BLE

Bluetooth Mesh

CMake

GCC

Python

MQTT

WebSockets

IoT knowledge

English B2+

Ownership

Tools

ESP-IDF

ESP-ADF

CMake

GCC

Python

Job description

In short If you're a firmware engineer who's just as comfortable reading a schematic as writing C, and you've spent serious time inside ESP32 or STM32 projects, we want to talk. You'd join us on a freelance, time & material basis : you're paid for the hours you actually work on real client projects. The first three months are about figuring out if we're a good match. When things work out, and that depends on the work itself, the project pipeline, and business timing, there's a real path to our core team with a permanent contract and full benefits. Why intent ? We've been designing and co-creating connected devices since 2008. Wearables, smart audio, health-tech hardware for clients like Oura and BOSE, backed by investors like a16z and Founders Fund. We're 60+ people, fully remote, and AI-native since before LinkedIn influencers discovered the term. Firmware is where most of our products actually live or die: BLE stacks, power budgets, sensor pipelines, OTA. If you like the kind of bug that only shows up at -10°C with a flat battery, you'll feel at home.

Who this role is NOT for

If you like being told exactly what to flash every morning and logging off the second the linker finishes, we're probably not your people. We look for engineers who ask "why" before "how", challenge assumptions, and dig into the hardware when the symptoms don't add up. We're AI-native and we expect you to treat AI as a daily multiplier, not a gimmick.

What we expect:

ownership of what you touch, straight talk when something on the board doesn't behave, and the kind of curiosity that makes you actually care about the device, not just the code that ships to it.

What you'll do

• Plan, develop, and ship firmware for connected devices: wearables, audio, health-tech hardware
• Gather and analyze requirements from clients, then turn them into something that actually works on real silicon
• Consult clients and internal teams on stacks, tools, and trade-offs
• Work side by side with mobile, backend, and QA to make sure the device and its companion app actually understand each other over BLE
• Test firmware releases and write the documentation that future-you will thank present-you for
• Estimate your own work and flag risks before they become blockers
• Push for better practices: code reviews, patterns, knowledge-sharing inside and outside the chapter
• Use AI tools as part of your daily workflow, not as a party trick

How we work

Fully remote. We have a pet-friendly office in Warsaw and a coworking space in Gdansk if walls and coffee machines motivate you, but nobody will ask why you're not there. Working hours are flexible: most of the team operates between 10:00 and 18:00 CET, and that's when most meetings happen. Evening calls with US-based clients (up to ~20:00) are part of the rhythm, sometimes a couple of times a week, always planned ahead. You'll be part of the Firmware & Hardware chapter for knowledge-sharing, and at the same time on a project squad led by a PM for day-to-day delivery.

What you'll get

• 135-180 PLN/h net B2B, depending on your experience
• Truly flexible hours: you organize your day
• Fully remote, with pet-friendly Warsaw office + Gdansk cowork if you want them
• Access to our internal knowledge-sharing: tech talks, experiments, side projects
• When the first 3 months work out, and that depends on the work, the project pipeline, and business timing, there's a real path to a permanent contract with a fixed monthly salary, 26 days paid leave, 10 sick days, Saltus medical care, and a training budget

No sugarcoating: during the freelance period there's no paid leave or medical benefits. Those come with the permanent contract, and we're transparent about that upfront.

Your first weeks

We aim to give you space to ramp up before jumping into live project work, but this is a real company with real deadlines: if the project needs you sooner, we'll make sure you have the support to hit the ground running. You'll get paired with a technical buddy and tackle progressively bigger tasks, so both sides can see how the collaboration feels. Feedback comes early and often, no one waits three months to tell you something isn't working. If it's great, you'll know. If something needs adjusting, you'll hear about it while there's still time to adjust.

Recruitment process

The entire process is in English. All interviews are recorded for internal evaluation purposes.

• Application with a few screening questions
• HR call, ~45 min, casual
• Technical meeting, ~90 min, with the firmware team
• Final feedback within a few days

Once we're in touch, you'll hear from us fast. We don't ghost and we don't drag.

One more thing intent is an equal opportunity employer. We care about what you can do, not where you come from.

Requirements

• 4+ years of professional firmware development
• Strong C/C++ for embedded systems (not "I dabbled in microcontrollers in school")
• Hands‑on ESP32 experience, including ESP-IDF and ESP-ADF
• STM32 experience in production projects
• Solid Bluetooth knowledge: BLE, Bluetooth Mesh, and comfort across the stack layers
• Toolchain fluency: CMake, GCC, Python‑based tooling
• Familiarity with IoT protocols like MQTT and WebSockets
• A feel for the connected device landscape: IoT, home automation, wearables, automotive
• English at B2+, written and spoken, because our clients are mostly US‑based
• Self‑reliance, ownership, and the kind of communication where people don't have to guess what you meant

Nice to have

• Rapid hardware prototyping on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Nucleo
• Working knowledge of LoRa, Zigbee, Thread, Wi‑Fi, and other networking standards
• Fleet deployment and management with AWS IoT Core, GCP Cloud IoT, Azure IoT, or similar
• Cryptography in embedded contexts
• Audio paths: encoding, decoding, mixers
• Machine learning on embedded targets
• Rust in firmware
• FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or other embedded operating systems
• Genuine curiosity about the devices you build, not just the bits flying around them